Terminally ill patients are not guinea pigs

LAST month, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia made a decision of huge consequence. It ruled that terminally ill cancer patients have a constitutional right to treatments that have not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As long as such drugs have completed phase I clinical trials, the court stated, they should be made available to any patient who requests them.

The three-judge panel split 2-1 in favour of a suit brought by the Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs, a patient advocacy group that …